Sunday, January 29, 2012

A Touch of Spice

I've had very little opportunity to blog over the last week as I'm sure readers will have noticed. I did find time to have dinner with two pilot friends at the new Cinnamon and Spice Indian restaurant on Margate seafront on Friday night. Sitting watching the celebrities leaving the launch of Turner & The Elements at the Turner Contemporary on a perfect seaside evening, I found both the food and the service to be good; so worth a visit to enjoy a regenerated Margate.

I'm thinking of wandering-up to see the new exhibition at the Turner this afternoon, after all, we've waited along time to see the a series of works devoted to the great artist and I'm sure it will prove to be a great draw for the town.

Yesterday, I joined some friends from our local dojo for an away day seminar in Sussex with Kyoshi Karl Long, who had come over from the States to teach. Karl is a delightful person who exemplifies the principles of courtesy and modesty one might expect of a great martial artist and it was a privilege to have the opportunity to learn from him once again.

A group of Karate and Aikido enthusiasts will be off to Japan in April to study with Hamada Sensei and they were due for a second day, which was scheduled to start at 7am on a south-coast beach to toughen them up for what is to come. Quite frankly, I'm much too old for that kind of thing now but I admire both the, spirit, determination and the self-discipline of those that do.

I suppose everyone deserves a rest from political commentary for at least a week and anyway, we have Cabinet coming-up again very soon where the Hartsdown Park and Margate Football Club application will be back once again for determination. I think I've commented more than enough on this subject and so now we wait to see what length of lease will be awarded to the club, so good luck!

I may not be blogging as regularly as usual over the next week as I have to prepare a presentation for an upcoming NATO intelligence conference. I'm privileged to be invited to give a briefing but as the only civilian speaker present, as far as I know, I'm somewhat daunted by the challenge.